


Misprints

by LectorEl



Category: The Posterchildren - QuipQuipQuip
Genre: Families of Choice, Gen, Indefinite detention is so not kosher, Original Characters - Freeform, the Foundation has a few stains on their records
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-19
Updated: 2013-01-19
Packaged: 2017-11-26 03:12:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/645916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LectorEl/pseuds/LectorEl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In one universe, Jack escaped being institutionalized thanks to his partner Rosario. In this one, though, the Foundation decides he's too unstable to be trusted. Gloria gets a companion, down in the tucked away corner of the Foundation's basement where her cell is located. </p><p>When Rosario comes for Jack, Gloria leaves with them. Problem Posterchildren have to stick together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident

Jack had made lists, back at the Foundation, of things he knew were true. This person can be depended on, that door jams easily, these foods will make him sick. Things which he could rely on as true, when he was having a bad day.

Three days after their crazy, poorly-planned escape from the Foundation, Jack burns them all. Gloria and Rosario help him, and don’t say a thing about it. 

That night, he starts a new list.

  1. Rosario is safe.



Jack has to believe that. He’s completely sunk without her, and she’s given up so much for Jack. If he starts doubting that, there’s nothing he can rely on. Rosario choose Jack over the Foundation, her family, and her future as a hero.

  1. Gloria is trustworthy.



The second entry he adds weeks later. The distinction between the first and the second is important. Gloria is not _safe_ , any more than Jack is. But the very way they are both unsafe is what makes her trustworthy. Gloria’s voice, wavering but constant, had been the only thing that had saved him in the days leading up to their flight.

  1. The best place to ask for directions is a restaurant that does take-out.



They’d learned that in Portland, Oregon, when Rosario had passed out from what turned out to be mild pneumonia worsened by dehydration. Neither Gloria nor Jack had been very impressed when Rosario woke up.

  1. You can treat most stomach troubles with yogurt and blueberries.



Jack was very dubious about that one. But Gloria says her mother swore by the remedy, and so far, it has proven to work. And he really doesn’t want to inquire too closely into _how_ it works.

Rosario has proven willing-gleefully willing-to find out, and explain, at length, should the opportunity arise. Rosario enjoys Jack’s horrified expressions more than he thinks fair.

  1. Do not bring up Rosario’s family



Gloria’s abandoned her, and Jack’s is dead, but Rosario’s is alive, and prior to their departure from the foundation, were very proud of her. He’s acutely aware of what she’s given up for them, and they split-second of pain that flashes across her face at the mention of them makes him sick with guilt.

  1. Do not bring up Gloria’s son



For separate reasons. Ernest Wright will still take his mother’s calls, and he hasn’t reported them to the Foundation yet. He’s even helped them out, once or twice, when they got themselves backed into a corner.  

But he’s still connected to John Wright, and Jack doesn’t care what Gloria-or Rosario, or anybody else-thinks. John Wright’s grade-A scum. Saying that, though, upsets Gloria, though, so Jack tries to hold his tongue.

  1. When in doubt: ‘Did you see the game last night?’



No matter where they are in the country, or what time of year it is, there was usually a game on last night. Jack’s getting really good at bluffing his way through conversation while Rosario and Gloria do whatever regrettably illegal thing that needs doing.

  1. They can’t take in every stray animal.



The litter of kittens that already occupies the RV is pushing it as it is. Luckily, Rosario is in charge of enforcing this one, because Jack has a soft-spot a mile wide for anything small, furry, and pathetic looking. Gloria’s not much better.

  1. In certain venues, distrust for the Foundation will make you allies.



If they can recognize Gloria on sight, it’s probably one of them. The Foundation’s detractors are a small but disturbingly well-connected group. That’s how they got the RV. They try to avoid falling back on those people, because it would be all too easy for Jack and his family to be made into figureheads for the movement. Not good for their goal of staying under the radar.

They make Jack’s skin crawl, and he doesn’t know why.

  1. The internet cannot be trusted, and he should leave it to Rosario.



Rosario laughed herself sick over his attempt to understand the idea of ‘the cloud’. And that’s not even getting into the disaster of the chupacabra incident. Gloria is slightly more subtle in her laughter, but that’s not saying much.

  1. Periods are not a big deal.



The first month of living in a small, confined space with two women proved very enlightening. Jack learned more about biology and human reproduction in that month than he had in his entire life proceeding it. He’s pretty sure Rosario learned some things too, but that is firmly filed under the mental heading of ‘do not ask.’

  1. If it comes down to his family vs. _anything_ , family first.



They choose him over everything else. Jack intends to return the favor.


	2. That All Men Are Created Equal

They met Jury in a small town in northern California. Or more accurately, they discovered Jury in a small town in California. He’d been stowing away in the one of the RV’s cupboards for ‘a couple of states now? Think it was Nevada where I snuck in.’ Jury was not what Jack had in mind when he wished for more male company.

Jury, at nine, was tiny, quiet, and _absurdly_ powerful. The things he could do to physics made even Gloria worried. He’d be a green band, or possibly blue, if he ever went to the Foundation. Which could never, ever happen, because as Jury tearfully confessed, he’d once used his powers against a baseline human. His step-sister. He’d been running, homeless, since then.

Gloria had taken him aside, and gently coaxed the exact details of what happened from him. She’d come back shaking with rage. Jack scooted his chair aside, wordlessly coaxing her to sit down.

“Scars,” Gloria said, nearly spitting the word, voice pitched low to keep from waking the exhausted child sleeping in the back with the kittens. “All up and down the back of his legs. Probably more beneath his clothes, I didn’t try to check.”

“His step-sister was how old?” Jack asked.

“Fifteen,” Gloria repeated. She shook her head, expression bewildered. “I don’t understand people. Why would you do that to a child? To anyone?”

Jack and Rosario exchanged glances, and reached out to take her hands. They both knew she wasn’t just talking about Jury.

“Power,” Jack said, bitterness twisting his voice. “Having it over someone else, it makes you think you have the right to use it.” Gloria squeezed his hand. They were both going to have nightmares tonight.

“Whatever the reason, it’s done,” Rosario said firmly. “We have to decide what to do now.”

“We’re keeping him, of course.” Gloria set her jaw, looking ready for a fight.

Jack nodded. “He’s just little, and if the Foundation gets him…”

“They’ll never let him leave again,” Rosario finished, a moue of distaste crossing her face. “Christ, when did the Foundation turn into the enemy?”

Gloria shot Jack a look before he could open his mouth. “Jury makes four of us,” she said, changing the subject. “Two Alphas, and two Betas, all of us on the wrong side of the Foundation. They won’t leave us alone.”

Gloria would know. The Foundation’s cruelty had cost Gloria more than what Jack and Rosario had lost to it, combined. Her husband, her child, her mental health, and almost two decades of her life.

“We’ll just have to keep moving,” Rosario said. “Unless anyone else has better ideas?”

“Nothing.” Jack frowned. That wasn’t quite true. He had an idea forming in the back of his head. But he wasn’t quite sure how to put it into words.

***

Abby was next. Her uncle was one of the anti-Foundation people that gave Jack the creeps, and he’d heard about them from the group that helped them get out of Oregon. Abby had ripped the memory of them from his head when she made her own escape.

“Escape from what?” Gloria asked, drawing the thirteen year old into a hug. Abby shuddered, clinging to Gloria’s dress.

“The house. Wasn’t allowed to leave,” Abby explained, voice stilted. “Wasn’t safe outside, uncle said. But wasn’t safe inside.”

“He’s a jerk, then,” Jury said, patting her shoulder.

Abby smiled a little, weak and wavering. “Uncle- not waking. Took everything.”

Jack glanced at Rosario, then Jury and Gloria, ending on Abby. This was becoming a theme. The idea niggled. He almost had it.

“Self-defense, dearheart,” Gloria said, catching the girl’s chin. “It’s not a crime, no matter what anyone says.”

“We’ve got room for one more,” Rosario said. There was no need for discussion this time. “It’ll be a bit cramped, but we’ll manage.”

Abby’s look of pure gratitude made it worth it.

***

By the time they picked up the Davis siblings, they couldn’t even pretend it was a coincidence.

“You those Foundation runaways?” Terrance had asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Word is you’re taking in bad posters. That true?”

“Know it is,” Abby said, frowning. “Wouldn’t come if not.”

“Okay, caught me.” Terrance smiled at Abby, easy and charming. “Yeah, I know.  My baby cousin Jamal said you helped him out. Back in New York?”

Jack frowned. He remembered Jamal. Solemn and self-contained, twelve going on eighty, with a neighbor with a seriously inappropriate interest in him and his sister. Jack had gotten to be _mean_ , which had been very therapeutic.

“We remember,” Gloria agreed cautiously. “What’s your situation?”

“My sister Jada needs to get out of here. Yesterday.” Terrance rubbed his thumb over a shiny burn scar on his forearm. “The police are looking for her after she lost it on the playground. Nobody got hurt, but…” he shrugged.

“People scare easy?” Jack asked. Terrance nodded.

“A little fire, and they lose it.” He scoffed. “She’s just little. Not her fault she’s still learning.”

Jack and Gloria had a rapid fire exchange of looks and hand signs. Rosario would kill them if they came back with two more people than they’d left with.

“We’re leaving tonight. Meet us with your sister at the bus station by the park on Roswell Avenue at eight,” Gloria said, sighing.

Rosario had taken it better than Jack had feared. By that, he meant that she spent under five minutes swearing at them both under her breath.

“Okay,” she said when she finished. “We’ve got to find a way to fit two more people in here. Somehow.”

Jack glanced around the RV, understanding why Rosario was so frustrated. Jury, along with the half-grown kitten herd, was flipping through a paperback on the couch. Abby and Gloria were both asleep in the RV’s bed. He and Rosario were at the kitchen table.  The only open seats were the driver’s and passenger seats.

Jack coughed. “I’ve got an idea. It’s probably a _bad_ idea, but…”

***

Jury clung to Jack’s neck, yawning sleepily. “We there yet?” Using his powers still took a lot out of him, and he’d done quite a bit today.

“Almost,” Rosario promised, grinning at Jack. Jack smiled back, and hefted Jury a little higher. Just another block, thankfully. Jury didn’t weigh much- less than forty pounds, soaking wet-but after the fourth mile, Jack had started to get tired.

The least the shysters they’d sold the RV to could have done was offered them a ride back into the freaking city. Not that they would have accepted after what they’d tried to pull.

Jack was just grateful they’d found a location on the outskirts of Detroit instead of further inward.

“You’ll like it, Jury,” Jack said, pausing beneath the shade of a decomposing awning. “Big yard to grow stuff in, your own bedroom, an actual kitchen-”

“-not that any of us know how to cook,” Rosario interjected.

“Terry does,” Jury said loyally.

Jack snickered. “Terrance knows how to make cinnamon rolls and macaroni. Which is more than the rest of us do, to be fair.”

“I like mac’roni,” Jury protested. Rosario ruffled his hair.

“Of course you do, pipsqueak. You eat it often enough.” If there was a certain flash of pain in her eyes, Jack was polite enough to ignore it. They all had their weak spots.

“Welcome home, you three!” Gloria called from the rotting porch of their new home, smiling wide enough it had to hurt. Abby looked up from her painting at the sound, and waved cheerfully at the returning trio.

“How did it go?” Gloria asked, once they reached the front steps.

“Ten grand,” Rosario reported happily. “We can do a _lot_ with that.”

“Don’t go waving it around,” Terrance said, exiting the house with his little sister in tow. “Glory, can you take care of Jada’s hair?”

“Of course,” Gloria agreed, beckoning the little girl over.

“Terry!” Jury climbed out of Jack’s hold, and bounced over to the older teen. “Guess what I did!”

“Blew something up?” Terrance asked, leading Jury into the house.

“This is all going to end badly, I just know it,” Jack warned, but he couldn’t make himself be too pessimistic. It was a gorgeous August afternoon, and they hadn’t had a brush with the foundation in months. This just might work.

“Hush,” Rosario ordered, swatting his shoulder lightly. “What are you painting, Abby?”

“Look.” Abby scooted back, and Jack leaned in to see. A sign. Painted light blue, with painstakingly neat lettering in black. “Suggestion from Jury. For front door.”

“Misprint Boarding House,” Rosario read off, and started laughing.


End file.
